This invention relates to cargo security seals, and more particularly to bolt seal assemblies for use as seals for doors of railroad cars, trailer trucks and the like.
Some of the more significant problems facing the transportation industry over the years have been thefts from railroad cars, trailer trucks, transport containers and the like. These thefts often occur in railroad freight yards where the cars, trucks and containers may be located while awaiting further transport.
Locking seals are employed to protect the contents of locked rail cars, trucks, and shipping containers. The typical locking seal is destroyed when opened and typically employed to show tampering with a locked compartment. Locking seals are usually not intended to prevent the door from being opened but only to indicate when the door has been opened by unauthorized personnel.
In the past, locking seals have ranged from cable locks wherein the opposite ends of the cable are locked by a self adjusting cable gripping device to pad locks. Typical cable seals include a cable gripping structure having a bore through which the cable is positioned. When the locking device is slid under the cable and desirably positioned, the cable lock is secured to the cable. Any attempt to remove the locking device from the cable in a reverse direction is precluded by the gripping structure within the unit bore. Cable gripping units are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,852,850; 3,868,748; 3,994,521; 1,577,678; 889,776; 4,747,631; 4,681,356; 4,681,355; 4,640,538; 4,312,529. Where the railroad car, trailer truck, container or the like is already provided with a hasp, pad locks and bolt locks may be used. Pad locks have been found to be impractical because of their cost and the problem of the transfer of keys with the railroad car, trailer truck or transport container or the like. Most pad locks were found to be removed by bolt cutters and therefore not reusable.
To solve this problem, a variety of bolt locks were provided. These bolt locks provided the required seal for the railroad cars, trailer trucks, shipping containers and the like, but were much less expensive to manufacture than a pad lock. Bolt locks were proposed to be disposable upon being removed by a bolt cutter or the like.
Various one time seals are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,690,443; 4,802,700; 4,280,726; and 4,681,356. The problem of course, with one time seals is the need to replace the seal once removed and the relative cost of the seal and the security of the seal.
A variety of one time bolt seals are commercially available. One type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,700 employing a straight seal rod with a screw or rivet type locking head on one end. The rod has a circumferential groove. The locking seal has a spring ring which engages a groove in the seal body and the rod groove for locking the rod in a fixed axial position relative to the seal. The free end is inserted through the opening of a hasp on a door, for example, with the head on one side of the hasp and the locking seal on the other side of the hasp. To remove the lock seal from the hasp, a commercially available bolt cutter is used. In other seal arrangements, the bolt shaft may be bent so that one shaft portion is inclined relative to a second shaft portion with a head at one end and a seal being locked to the other end. In other bolt seals, the locking seal may be slid along the bolt shaft for locking to the bolt at different axial positions. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,413,393; 5,347,689; and 5,450,657. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,347,689 and 5,413,393, a rigid steel bolt shaft has annular grooves which are engaged by a mating collate in a cavity in the seal body.
A cable cutter is used to break the seal of U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,657. However, the bolts of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,413,393 and 5,347,689 have weakening links at the bolt ends so that the head and bolt when bent will sever the head and swaged bolt portion from the rest of the bolt. In certain of the above patents, the seal may slide along the bolt so as to position the bolt head and the seal against the hasp to preclude the breaking of the seal with a bolt cutter. U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,393 is provided with a spacer to provide room for a bending tool for use by an authorized user.
It is therefore highly desirable to provide a new and improved bolt seal. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved bolt seal which is less expensive to manufacture. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved bolt seal which is more secure than prior seals. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved bolt seal which is less likely to hide tampering.
Some of the prior art bolt seals are difficult to remove. It is therefore also highly desirable to provide a new and improved bolt seal which is easily removed using readily available tools.
It is also highly desirable to provide a universal bolt seal assembly that meets all of the requirements of both bolt seals which allow the seal to slide along the bolt and bolt seals which position the head and the seal adjacent the hasp to make tampering more difficult and bolt seals that can be removed without specialized tooling.
Finally, it is highly desirable to provide a new and improved bolt seal which has each of these features.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a new and improved bolt seal. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved bolt seal which is less expensive to manufacture.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a new and improved bolt seal which is more secure than prior seals.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a new and improved bolt seal which is less likely to hide tampering.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a new and improved bolt seal which is easily removed using readily available tools.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a universal bolt seal assembly that meets all of the requirements of both bolt seals which allow the seal to slide along the bolt and bolt seals which position the head and the seal adjacent the hasp to make tampering more difficult and bolt seals that can be removed without specialized tooling.
It is finally an object of the invention to provide a new and improved bolt seal which has each of these features.
In the broader aspects of the invention, there is provided a new and improved bolt seal which provides an elongated tube or an elongated bolt, having one or more ribs or grooves thereon for engaging a lock body, and a lock body which may be slid onto the end of the bolt to engage the ribs or grooves of the bolt. The lock body has a spring clip or a lock ring therein which when positioned in a locked position engages the ribs or grooves of the bolt in a non-removable manner.